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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24270541">Soaring</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aanok/pseuds/Aanok'>Aanok</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Cassandra Appreciation Week 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cassandra Appreciation Week (Disney: Tangled), F/F</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:55:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>875</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24270541</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aanok/pseuds/Aanok</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Cassandra finally finds her own place.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cassandra (Disney: Tangled) &amp; Original Character(s), Cassandra/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Cassandra Appreciation Week 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751974</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Soaring</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written on the day 5 prompt for Cassandra Appreciation Week 2020: happiness.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It's been a few years since she last set eyes on the towers of Corona Castle. They still make the same absolutely breathtaking vista, cast against the deep blue of the waves below and the lighter tones of the sky around and above them. Every time she comes back to her childhood home, every time at the same bend in the road where the shrubbery and hillside finally open up to the sea and the island in the distance, she can't help but feel the same awe and familiar warmth well up in her chest.</p><p>The first time it took her five years to find enough peace of mind to make her way back. Right underneath the relief from having found a resolution to her Moonstone mistake, as soon as she hit the road having said her goodbyes to her old friends, she was struck by the terrifying realization of the true magnitude of just what she had done, what she almost had done and what she still had to do to find a true place of balance.</p><p>Ironically, it was more insidious and much more dangerous than casting rock spires out of the ground cackling like the armor-clad maniac she'd been till then. It was the moment she had to take responsibility that nobody else but herself was in charge of her happiness and misery, the moment she had to start a fight of introspection for which she knew she had no training or equipment.</p><p>It was a hard time of wavering resolve, of crushing powerlessness taking turns with an instinctive, visceral drive to claw her way out of that pit she was buried in, a need to take flight and finally realize herself as a whole person, by herself and for herself. The idea of turning back to take comfort once again under that shower of joy and affection of a princess that had been the center of her life and downfall had tempted her over and over again like a shimmering mirage. But, every time, she managed to find enough strength to stick with her resolution and stay away from her old bad habits.</p><p>So, slowly, slowly, with the company of her two oldest friends Owl and Fidella, she chipped away little by little at the cage that held her down and tried her best at the daunting experiment of living her life for her own sake. She traveled all across the Seven Kingdoms, saw incredible sights and met all sorts of people from all walks of life. She gained and lost new companions, she got in trouble many times, unwillingly wound up on the wrong side of the law for a while and got away just by the skin of her teeth on more occasions than she would like to admit.</p><p>And one day, after a lot of back and forth, she finally reached the conclusion that, yes, she was ready to try coming back. What a celebration it was! Her father, Rapunzel, Eugene, her friends, everyone was beyond joy at meeting her again, hug her, exchange stories over food and drink. She felt a sense of satisfaction, of deep contentedness and peace like she never had before, like at last everything was in its right place, exactly where it should be.</p><p>Happiness.</p><p>Yet she couldn't feel like lingering in it. Life on the road had thought her that the one true duty everybody really owes to anyone doesn't have anything to do with tasks, jobs or loyalties. It is, simply, to respect and be fair towards yourself, so that everything else might descend from that.</p><p>And happiness, she felt, as far as she was concerned at least, wasn't so much a state of being than a state of becoming. She found that wanderlust offered its own kind of balance, unstable and ever shifting, something you struggled to achieve and maintain and, through that struggle, it let you find space to grow and flourish.</p><p>Eugene never really let her live down the night she went a bit too far with her liquor and expressed these thoughts out loud. But he understood and so did everyone else.</p><p>So back to the road she went, for years and years, going back and forth and farther than ever but not with unease, not with any restlessness or feeling like she was running from something or someone. She was just free.</p><p>And then she met her, the same woman riding her horse right beside her at that bend in the road. A kindred spirit, with her own life story and adventure who become her inseparable companion through her travels. And, in time, much more than that. They live together, each for their own sake but also as a whole, a union which in turn has its reason and right for being. This is the most recent truth she's been thrilled to find out: once you're in control of your own self, you can expand and mix it with someone else's to create a greater whole.</p><p>"Look at that. Do you think Eugene managed to get his face on the banners like he said last time?" asks this incredible woman.</p><p>"I hope so. I could use some expensive target practice," she replies with a cheeky smile.</p>
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